Princeton women cap historic 30-0 regular season with win over Penn

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — The final buzzer sounded Tuesday night and there it was: Perfection for the Princeton women.

With a 55-42 victory over Penn here at the cozy, cacophonous Palestra on the heels of the Schuylkill River, the Tigers capped their regular season with a 30-0 record and put an exclamation point on the best year by a men's or women's team in Ivy League history.

After a win against Columbia Saturday, Princeton bested the previous Ivy League record for wins in a season held by the 1970-71 Penn men's team, which started 28-0 before falling in the NCAA tournament. But Tuesday night's victory over the Quakers made certain the Tigers closed their remarkable regular season unblemished.

When it was all over, the Tigers players leapt up and down at midcourt and hoisted the Ivy League championship trophy above their heads. Then, Tigers coach Courtney Banghart grabbed a black-and-orange sign that read "Go Tigers! 30-0. Perfect!" and carried it into the locker room and broke into an MC Hammer-inspired dance with her players.

"When you go 30-0 -- ask UConn -- it's really hard to do," Banghart said, referring to the women's powerhouse in Storrs, Ct. "This team is made for a great story."

The No. 13-ranked Princeton women are joined by Kentucky's men's team as the only undefeated teams in college basketball.

But the dominant Tigers -- which entered Tuesday's game with an average margin of victory of 25 points -- had their hands full against a scrappy Penn team that was also the defending Ivy champion. The Quakers closed to within 28-27 of Princeton with 15:58 to go in the game before the Tigers started to break free.

Princeton took its first double-digit lead at 44-33 with 7:04 remaining after a layup by senior Blake Dietrick. From there, Penn would get no closer than within six of the Tigers.

"This season has meant so much," Dietrick said. "It feels great. I'm so glad we finished it on a win. But it's so much bigger than that."

Now, Princeton is alone in the record books and lumped in current national headlines with Kentucky.

But earlier this week, Banghart said her Princeton group is unique. As an Ivy League school, Princeton cannot offer athletic scholarships, and Banghart said many of her players juggle some of the most challenging academic schedules in the country with basketball.

Now in her eighth season as head coach, Banghart had built the Tigers into an Ivy League power even before this season, leading Princeton to five straight 20-win seasons and six overall postseason berths. But she wanted more from this year's group. She knew her team had talent and experience, but she wasn't sure about their intensity.

In turn, Banghart was unyielding in her criticism and demands during grueling October practices. She constantly barked at her players, finding the slightest imperfections. When she found an error, her players ran and ran and ran.

"This is the hardest I've been on any team, especially in the preseason," Banghart said. "I was relentless. If I saw anything but edge I would stop them, they'd run and [I'd] yell at them."

Banghart and her players say they knew this team was special in December when the Tigers traveled to Michigan. It was the last week of the semester with finals approaching, and the players were cramming for tests over two flights and a layover at Logan International Airport in Boston. Then, with hardly a Tigers fan in Ann Arbor's Crisler Center, Princeton stomped the Wolverines by 30 points.

"I thought, 'Boy, these guys are pretty good,'" Banghart said. "I never really thought undefeated, but I thought we were really good."

Princeton went on to smoke the competition. The Tigers hammered Portland State by 71 on Dec. 19. They blasted Harvard by 50 Jan. 30. They won 28 of 30 games by double figures, including Tuesday's against Penn.

Along the way, the Princeton elite took notice. Former U.S. Senator and Princeton graduate Bill Bradley addressed the Tigers before they played Yale in February. The team was visited during its game at American in November by First Lady Michelle Obama, the aunt of freshman forward Leslie Robinson. (Michelle Obama graduated from Princeton in 1985.)

At halftime, the First Lady knocked on the team's locker room door.

"She says, 'Am I interrupting anything?'" Banghart said. "This is the First Lady of the United States. Of course the coach in me is kind of like, 'Yeah. You know -- yeah.' But it's Michelle Obama. So she addressed the team and I'm watching the clock and I'm like, 'Oh God. We only have two minutes left.'"

Princeton only beat American by seven.

"That's our [second] closest game -- and I still blame that on Michelle Obama," Banghart said with a smile.

Princeton didn't romp to perfection Tuesday night against Penn. The Quakers led 14-12 with 9:59 to go in the first half. But the Tigers closed on a 14-7 run to secure a 26-21 lead at the half.

From there, Princeton used its superior versatility and finesse to put the game out of reach.

Projected as a No. 5 seed in the NCAA tournament, the Tigers now turn their attention to their next record-breaking goal: to win a game in March Madness.